[Dave]

We all get to the point we want to make our shots that bit better in Photoshop or equivalent. We read all the magazine articles where people go on about "dodge" & "burn" & the example shots looks great. So why does it go so wrong when we try having a go

You try time & time again, yet you end up with lost detail in the shadows, burnt out highlights & let's not even talk about the evident processing with trails of lines or circles from where we have been playing ...... it's so frustrating !!!!!

Sound familiar ? Well I've been through it & even though I've learnt how to refine the process, I've chosen not to use it for the majority of the time, for the following reasons :-

- All too easy to burn past the "black" point & thus lose detail in the shadows
- All too easy to dodge past the "white" point & lose detail in the highlights
- Hard to create a smooth transition from processed areas to original
- Just as hard to get a constant effect across the whole shot
- No easy way to manipulate changes without reverting to history steps

So what's the alternative. Well this is purely a personal viewpoint & a peek in to some of the processes I use. Let's take an example scenario. We have a landscape with perfect land exposure, but the sky seems a bit to bland...the blue could do with being deeper & the whites in the clouds a bit whiter. So instead of getting the doge & burn tools out I would :-

- Duplicate the layer (always keeping original at bottom for keeps sake)
- Apply a "S" curve adjustment layer & play with settings to get sky with deeper Blues & purer whites, ignoring what it is doing to the land.
- Apply a layer mask to bring back the land, either by a gradient mask, or using a soft brush.

Ah, but you say on the last point thats pretty similar to using a birsh for doge/burn. Nope.... I have the following options open to me to fine tune the shot, without ever losing detail
- Change opacity of top layer, to lessen overall effect / changes
- Can change the shape of "Curve" layer at any time in future
- Can use white brush to lessen layer mask in spepcific areas, or apply some more black to increase mask
- Can mix & match all of above points, at will, as often as I want

This is just one example of using layers with adjustements / filters that are applied to whole shot, or part of shot by using layer masks. In addition to above I might also use :-

- Adjustment Levels Layer
- Colour / Saturation
- Shadow/Highlight adjustments (although rarely )
- etc etc

Proofs in the pudding as they say, so take a browse through my gallery (link to left) & you'll notice lots of the Mono shots have been processed a reasonable amount. I would say less than 5% have any dodging or burning via the normal tool.

Hopefully this gives you something else to think about & you may find it gives better results than what you have experienced to date. "Dodge & Burn" still has its place. ..... for me that's where I want to manipulate only a small part of a shot quickly ....for others who have reasonable artistic skills they may find it suitable for their prcoessing . Each to their own

[Markulous]

Originally Posted by Dave

- Shadow/Highlight adjustments

I was listening until you mentioned that!
(tho' don't actually disagree with anything that you say!)

[Dave]

Originally Posted by Markulous

I was listening until you mentioned that!
(tho' don't actually disagree with anything that you say!)

I rarely use it, but was trying to think of filters / adjustments that relate to Burning / Dodging Last used here :- Intrigued

[Dabhand16]

I also tend to use layers to make the different adjustments. I do tend to dodge and burn if the part of the image is either small, difficult to select, or needs a grad that my layer skills can't achieve. If I've got to this point, it's probably a lost cause anyway.

[Charlotte]

Excellent article Dave It's always interesting to read about others' processing techniques, it often reminds us of techniques left forgotten or those we've yet to learn I use most of the above, where necessary, including the odd dodging + burning except I haven't seemed to need to expand or contract a mask yet However, I am still a beginner with post-processing, with much still to learn, so very much appreciate the insight you've given us here with regard to how you use PS tools + techniques

[TS Petrillo]

Ya know, thats really sound advice. I'm going to give that a try this week.

[Dave Canon]

Dave, until very recently I did not do dodging and burning either but used all the techniques you outlined. I always felt that dodging and burning was a bit heavyhanded and not suitable for subtle adjustments. However, following a lecture covering this topic by Graham at the Camera Club (and he is an expert in this area for digital and darkroom), I did experiment with dodging and burning. Firstly, you make all the other adjustments and leave dodging and burning only for the final touches and only where needed. Graham was showing us how to draw a viewer into and around a picture by subtle changes in brightness and contrast. I have tried this on one mono Photo and it did OK in the last competition with the judge explaining how he was drawn through the picture. I have not tried dodging and burning on colour pics and have no plans to do so.

[Markulous]

OK, I've now tried your methodology, Dave, and I have to say that if you're after an overall alteration then it works very well. As for localised effects I find not nearly enough control as it's much more difficult to get the subtle (and highly localised) changes. But then I've always maintained it's about 'little and often'! D&B still roolz!

[chickadee]

i will be happy to achieve either
but as new to ps and really up until recently havent been a great fan of ps ,as my thoughts were ,i want my pics to be based on my camera skills not based on how good iam at manipulation. But now am totally in favour for ps to be used ONLY as an enhancement tool and if needed ,assist accomplish the overall end result a person is after ,that may not be possible by camera.(utilise tools but dont abuse it)
Think it all comes down to personal preferences and how all is applied.
Still amazes me on what a person can do in ps , and hope to be able to accomplish the art of ps.So for me its practice practice and more practicing.
Thanks for this interesting insight into this side of ps.

[Rob Barron]

I am with Mark I think. Whilst I always tell my students to use D & B sparingly, I think it is a very important tool and a skill that has to be practiced in order to become proficient with it. The people who have come into digital from the darkroom know that dodginf and burning is mostly a very subtle skill that needs time and patience.

Sadly I often see students using the dodge tool so heavily that the results look fake. Indeed, I have heard more than one a student saying 'Look out, here comes Mr 5%!' because I am always telling them to never use more than 5% when dodgning or burning. If you think something needs burning 20%, do it in layers of 4% five times rather than 20% once!

It MUST be done subtly in order to work effectively but when used well, D & B is a great tool and very valuable. That said, I also encourage the use of the other tools along with selection tools to adjust areas as well, one tool is rarely the answer for every situation

Cheers,
Rob

[Charlotte]

Excellent advice there, Rob Particularly re: spreading D&B (or you could do this with any other adjustment as well) over several layers in increments, so that you could just remove some of the effect rather than having to start over if you don't like the result ... I find going back in history not a help at all where you're using one tool many times, i.e. a lot of strokes, because with 101 "dodge" or "burn" entries, you never know which entry relates to which instance on the actual image ... hope that makes sense

[VikingPhotography]

I can honestly say that I never use dodge/burn/sponge for any of my shots; I prefer to work with layers, masks, levels, curves and a whole other host of non-destructive editing tools in PS.

Sure, this means that the resultant .psd files for stored works can run into the seveal 100MB+ region, but I'd rather be able to revisit and tweak a shot a little wihtout having to re-work the entire thing.

[Majik Imaje]

The mark of a "true" professional.. .. in the Art of photography.. ..

The master of masters .. Ansel Adams.. had only two skills to work with.

Two "skills" not to be confused with "clicks".

But for what it is worth, when using film and processing prints in the darkroom, I could never ever achieve what I "saw" when I first captured or created that image.

I always knew that something was wrong. but I just didn't know what to do.. I knew all about "burning & dodging" or so I thought.. ha ha.. Until I read this one sentencel, in a book about Ansel Adams.. when I read this one sentence, the book went flying into the air, and I was out the door down the stairs to my darkroom and my printing results were forever changed ! that is all it took.. was one sentence..!


..........." it would often take Ansel Adams as many as 30 sheets of paper to create JUST ONE PRINT.!!!


thus.. .. .. .. my "sig" ! you can't possibly learn this skill... ... .... ... unless you practice it..!


and before you ever learn how to do anything correctly... you gotta "fail" first !